Matt Taibbi Takes On Tom Friedman's Green Cred: "Porn-Stached Resident Of A Positively Obscene...Mega-Monstro-Mansion"

When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman's new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.

Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America's ability to fall for absolutely anything--just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts-- along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 114,000 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[BN2112]

Perhaps there is a valid argument regarding Fiedman’s hypocrisy and ever shifting positions. However at least Friedman has the b alls to address the most critical factor in the environmental equation most self-proclaimed environmentalists are to cowardly to confront--over and exponentially growing human population. I have only started to read Hot, Flat, and Crowded and hope Mr. Friedman promotes the resurrection of the family planning movement as the book progresses.
For too long the environmental movement has kowtowed to the cultural sensitivities of the fecundity worship that came with the advent of Pope JP II, fertility clinics, and the lucrative baby supplies business to name a few. We are consuming this planet like locusts turning resources into waste and the longer it takes us to put the brakes on consumption AND population growth, the closer to catas trophe we come.
If a cancer was self-aware, surely it would think it was at the peak of its prosperity immediately before it ki lls its host.

[NYCdowntown]

Hail to the hypocrite!

[LeeCalif]

This is lengthy but some of the best journalism I've read since Rex Nutting at Marketwatch listed the terrible things Bush did to the country.

[NYCdowntown]

I called the times, got the guy's office number and told him politetly "you are just a fake!" the assistant was like "hummm ahhh uuu"

[avicenna]

That was very cathartic, so heartfelt gratitude to Taibbi for smacking Friedman with that much verbose vigor. The only thing that needs correcting was the reference to how much those empty words are selling for in major Canadian bookstores - it isn't $35; it is $17.02 (chapters). So we aren't to be pitied in regards to having to pay more for the little that Friedman represents.

[akos]

Never cared much for T. Friedmans writing because of his naive free market economy gushing and his support for the Iraq war. But this is just a personal diatribe. There is no "Sippenhaftung", his wife's family business is just that . Last time i looked he was a journalist not a developer. Sure his literary style isn"t great but Taibi's isn't either and he can't even get his numbers straight. Subtle humor? Porn-stached, Mega-Monstro..... very subtle, very humorous. Taibi should get over it . With this crap he will never make it from the New York Press to the NY Times.

[JRsNana]

Taibbi rocks! This one is right on the money. Friedman is a hack.

[offred]

I agree with him, though, on the fact that the global population is increasing way too much and way too fast. We've already got Russia and Ukraine fighting over heating oil. How long before we've actually got wars all over the globe for such basic resources as water, food, space, and fuel? What happened to concern about overpopulation? Can our brains only handle one or two problems at a time?

[Erdgeist]

Taibbi is great -- Friedman is a BS artist. We should learn to laugh at Friedman. But sometimes we should be horrified at how stupid we are for uncritically accepting his garbage such as, *The World is Flat*.

In this book, Friedman makes claims based on claims -- not any of it being evidence based. Instead he resorts to stories from his pals. Yet many, like hungry pigs, wallow in Friedman's leaves as if it were truth from on high. It is a good example of the old saw, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Even the metaphor the "world is flat" sucks. Alex Jones' metaphor is much better. This is a "prison planet". The world's people are being enslaved by corporations -- turned into wage slaves. The environment is being poisoned and destroyed while over a billion people on this prison planet live in extreme poverty (a dollar a day).

We don't need anymore Friedmans -- we need revolution.

[Durango]

My bottom line is how Friedman, or any of our illustrious pundits, reacted to Colin Powell's speech before the UN.

I don't know for sure Friedmans reaction: Did it include the words "convincing", "compelling" overwhelming evidence" etc etc.

In which case he should be sentenced to a real job in real America.

As a janitor in an Inner City School, or a technician in an emergency room. Or any such low paying job where he needs to worry about what happens if he misses a paycheck.

And is scared SH&tless if he gets sick or injured because his job doesn't include any health insurance.

Mr. Friedman, please just go away.

[marijam]

There's no getting away from karma.

[klondiker]

Very funny column! Taibbi is a great polemcist. But, I do have to take issue with a few things:

1. What is with people attacking others for what their spouses do?? The fact that Tom Friedman's wife's family own shopping malls, should have no bearing on his ideas. From what I've read, he met his wife when he was a young student. So, what is he supposed to do now - divorce her??

2. I'm a pretty regular reader of Friedman's columns, and as far as I know, he has never criticized consumers for their buying habits. He never says that it's the people's fault that they buy gas-guzzling SUVs or big-screen TVs. His criticism in this area is directed towards the government for not having the right incentives. Friedman is the classic liberal incentive-thinker, who believes that government policy should influence behaviour positively. So, if you don't want people to buy SUVs, slap on a huge tax on them. In this way, he's not necessarily a hypocrite for having an 11,000 sq.ft mansion.

3. Tom Friedman's ridiculous analogies and travelogue writing style are definitely fair game, and I enjoyed Taibbi's gleeful eviseration of them!

[AFran90]

Some people may ask, when should we forgive Thomas Friedman his mistake of his constant war cheerleading and depraved indifference to the suffering of the Iraqis? Or when we should give him back our trust after being wrong on virtually wrong on every foreign policy issue that has faced us in the last 8 years?

May I suggest, some time in the next six months?

[lizziekw]

Economists are like historians - they are frequently bad writers. Bad writing doesn't always mean they are equally bad at economics or history.

But I love Matt Taibbi and he makes some fair points about Friedman's long history as a free market advocate and supporter of the Iraq War as well as his golf-leads-to-insight approach. It's great that he's changed his views on some things but those were his views and it's worth noting.

As for the gigantic house, Mrs. Friedman bulldozing Hawaii to build shopping malls and Mr. Friedman's possibly being a tool - well I like Tom Friedman these days so I'm inclined to ignore it.

[NWBrunette]

Awesome! Where have you been all my life and where do I sign up for more?

[Buddy McCue]

If you'd like to see Sarah Palin dissected by Taibbi's wit, I would recommend this article I found on Alternet: "Mad Dog Palin." It's a little dated, because it was written last September, but if you haven't read it, it's worth it. Made me laugh.

http://www.alternet.org/story/100551/mad_dog_palin/

[Vivuldi]

Although Taibbi is employing tu quoque fallacy in his screed, his critique of Friedman's presumptuous hodge-podge of environmental ideas merely expresses the author's lack of scientific erudite in his quest for practical "green" solutions -- and in some respect, rightfully so. Nonetheless, Taibbi's approach is to some extent sophomoric and a bit engaging in nit picking the pedantic while straying away from the gist of the argument. His approach in divulging Friedman's assertions do not include the full context but they are equally damning while punching the expose with the entertainment values.

[Bruupo]

"...*engaging a bit* in nitpicking the pedantic"

If the phrase didn't have the word "pedantic" in it, I wouldn't have bothered ;)

[oceanlover]

Not sure why I bothered! Drivel.